Book Review: Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

After the rain comes the rainbow.

Although technically a memoir, I found this book to be a hybrid of sorts, much like the overall 'best of both worlds' theme it portrays. The deeply moving personal story of Michelle and her mother had it's non fictional elements, all while the nuanced way of story telling and the gradual rise in emotions made it a compelling read much like a gripping piece of fiction. As real life can be stranger than fiction, the untimely demise of the author's mother and its aftermath really crafts a coming of age story for the author to live through and later write about. As the very first sentence of the book opens with her mother's death, the entire memoir had a brutally honest and straight forward way of expressing the raw and real emotions. What makes the death of her mother even more painful is the fact that it wasn't only her mother the author lost, but also the connection, the thread that connected the author to her Korean roots. The cooking of Korean dishes during her mother's cancer journey and even after her passing away signifies the medium the author finally found to celebrate her mother's love and keep her Korean roots alive. Korea the author knew from the stories told by her mother and the trips they two made still remains the same in the author's mind through the variety of dishes she mastered in learning to cook. As someone who moved to the United States at a young age, I was able to relate to many struggles the author faced, predominantly about feeling lost and not knowing which world to fit it, practically being an outsider in the new country all while being estranged from the native country. The dilemma about getting rid of certain aspects about yourself to fit into the new culture or to stick with your native traditions while being alienated in the new country is beyond relatable. The author trying to find a middle ground or balancing between the two cultures was both inspiring and reassuring. Losing her mother to cancer made the author realize the things she took for granted and the whole heartbreaking journey she had to go through from the time her mother was diagnosed to the years of healing after her mother's death really gave the author a new perspective and definitely helped her grow. It was so heartwarming to see that after all the sadness, she was able to find success and really carve out a space for herself. After the rain, there comes the rainbow. - Rithin.